Overview
The gap between data and insight is not a technology gap — it is a translation gap. Most employees cannot write SQL. Most dashboards do not answer the question at hand. Natural Language to Insights eliminates this friction entirely, letting any user ask any data question in plain English and receive an accurate, understandable answer. We build NL-to-insight systems tailored to your data model, your domain vocabulary, and your accuracy requirements — from customer service agents querying order histories to finance teams interrogating P&L data without waiting for IT.
How It Works with a21
Data & Vocabulary Mapping
Map your data sources and build a domain vocabulary layer that translates business language into the technical data model. Identify the query patterns and answer formats that matter most.
Query Engine Build & Tuning
Build the NL query engine — covering intent classification, entity extraction, query generation, and answer formatting. Tune against your specific vocabulary and query patterns.
Accuracy Validation & Deployment
Test against a golden question set. Measure accuracy and iterate until targets are met. Deploy with user feedback mechanisms for continuous improvement.
What We Offer
Intent & Entity Recognition
Accurately parse user questions to identify intent (trend analysis, comparison, lookup, aggregation) and extract entities (products, time periods, regions, metrics).
Multi-Source Query Routing
Route queries to the right data source — database, document store, API — and synthesise answers that span multiple sources where needed.
Conversational Follow-Up
Maintain query context across conversational turns — supporting follow-up questions like ‘now show me last year’ or ‘break that down by region’ without starting over.
Tabular & Narrative Answers
Return answers in the format most useful for the question — structured tables for comparisons, narrative explanations for trends, and numbers-first summaries for KPI checks.
Domain Vocabulary Training
Train the query engine on your organisation’s specific terminology, abbreviations, and business concepts — so users ask questions naturally, not in database language.
Feedback & Improvement Loop
Capture user feedback on answer quality and use it to continuously improve query accuracy — with human review of low-confidence answers.
Why Choose a21
Accuracy You Can Measure
We publish query accuracy rates against golden test sets. You know what percentage of questions will be answered correctly before deployment.
Domain-Tuned
Generic NL-to-SQL tools fail on domain vocabulary. We tune specifically for your business language, product names, and data conventions.
Conversation-Native
We build conversational interfaces, not one-shot query boxes. Users can explore and drill in naturally — the way they actually think.
Source Agnostic
We connect to your existing data sources — no data migration required. Users query what already exists through a natural language layer.
Success Stories
Problem
Insurance operations staff were reliant on IT for every data query — leading to backlogs, delays in decision-making, and significant IT resource cost.
Solution
Deployed a NL-to-insights interface over the operations data warehouse, tuned for insurance-specific vocabulary — policy terms, claim types, underwriting metrics.
Problem
A consumer goods company’s 200-person sales team had no self-service access to product performance, sell-through, or promotional data — limiting their ability to have informed conversations with retail partners.
Solution
Built a mobile-accessible NL query tool over the sales data platform, with a product and channel vocabulary layer and conversational follow-up capability.
Tech Stack & Tools
LangChain / LlamaIndex
OpenAI / Anthropic APIs
Snowflake / BigQuery / PostgreSQL
dbt
FastAPI
Streamlit / React
Get Started
Make data accessible to everyone in your organisation. Talk to a21 about NL-to-Insights.
